31

Bennett Seminary continued to grow during the five and one-half years that the Rev. Mr. Thayer was its principala From the deed record- ing the transaction, it appears that 7acres adjacent to the school pro- perty were added to the campus on May 3, l877o At that time the Freed-

men's Aid Society bought the land from R. S. and Elizabeth Rust for

$708.7536

The long awaited building on the new site, made possible; through a ten thousand-dollar donation by Lyman Bennett,37 was com- pleted in l878 and was due to be dedicated later that year.38 An addi- tional five hundred dollars, according to Thayer in an appeal to the North Carolina Conference, was needed to furnish the building.39 The large, four—story brick building,40 he remembered years later, 1'was a

triumph fOr that dayo Boarding students crowded in until the building 41

was full. Part of the success in establishing this building was due

to the Methodist ministers Matthew Alston and w. W. Morgan,42 under

43

whose leadership "the colored people . . .contributed liberally.. . ."

36Deed, dated 3 May 1877, recorded 4 June l877, R. S. Rust to Freedmen's Aid Society, Guilford County, Record of Deeds, Book 57, pp. 63~65._

37 38

last page. 39

Freedmen's Aid Society, Tenth Annual Report, 1877, p. 37.

No C. Conference, Minutes, l878, p, ll, and advertisement on

Ibid., last pageo

qureedmen's Aid Society, Twelfth Annual Report, l879, p. 37.

thhayer, letter, in Greensboro Record, November l6, l9h0.

4ZIbid.

”BFreedmen's Aid Society, Tenth Annual Report, 1877, p. 37.